Sister Nations
Native American Women
Writers on Community
Foreword by Winona LaDuke
Edited by Heid E. Erdrich & Laura Tohe
Copyright
Native Voices
Native people telling their stories, writing their history
To embody the principles set forth by the series, all Native Voices books are emblazoned with a bird glyph adapted from the Jeffers Petroglyph site in southern Minnesota. The rock art there represents one of the first recorded voices of Native Americans in the Upper Midwest. This symbol stands as a reminder of the enduring presence of Native Voices on the American landscape.
Publication of Natives Voices is supported in part by a grant from The St. Paul Companies.
2002 by the Minnesota Historical Society. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, write to the Minnesota Historical Society Press, 345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906.
www.mnhs.org/mhspress
Manufactured in [the United States of America/Canada]
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence for Printed Library materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
International Standard Book Number
ISBN 0-87351-427-0 (cloth)
ISBN 0-87351-428-9 (paper)
E-book ISBN: 978-0-87351-697-6
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sister nations : Native American women writers on community / edited by Heid E. Erdrich and Laura Tohe
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-87351-427-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-87351-428-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
- American literatureIndian authors.
- Indians of North AmericaLiterary collections.
- WomenUnited StatesLiterary collections.
- American literaturewomen authors.
- Indian womenLiterary collections.
- CommunityLiterary collections.
- Indians of North America.
- WomenUnited States.
- Indian Women.
- Community.
I. Erdrich, Heid. E. (Heid Ellen)
II. Tohe, Laura.
PS508.I5 S57 2002
810.8092870997dc21
2001057986
Contents
Contents
kateri akiwenzie-damm
Sleepwalker
Esther Belin
First Woman
Kimberly Blaeser
Shadow Sisters
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
A Womans Old Age
Pauline Danforth
Piece Quilt: An Autobiography
Susan Deer Cloud
Welcome to the Land of Maam
Nicole Ducheneaux
Picking Indian Tea
Heid E. Erdrich
Craving: First Month
She Dances
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
In the Fields
LeAnne Howe
Choctalking on Other Realities
Linda Noel
Stitch upon Stitch
Suzanne Rancourt
Sipping
Margo Tamez
One at a Time
Term
Limp Strings
Karenne Wood
Red Hawk Woman
Evangeline Parsons Yazzie
Vicks
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
A Cousin from California Shows Up at My House, the First Time in Thirty Years
Susan Deer Cloud
Doe Season
Louise Erdrich
The Shawl
Lorena Fuerta
Anna Ghostdancer
Revah Mariah S. Gover
Conjure
Long Division
Linda LeGarde Grover
Chi-Ko-ko-koho and the Boarding School Prefect
Debra Haaland
Mothers Love
Ins Hernndez-Avila
Tough Audience
Brothers Passing
Linda Noel
Close to Bone
Laura Tohe
In Dintah
Karenne Wood
In Memory of Shame
Susan Deer Cloud
Her Pocahontas
Heid E. Erdrich
Butter Maiden and Maize Girl Survive Death Leap
Lise Erdrich
Fleur-de-Lis
Lorena Fuerta
Untitled
Terry Gomez
Miracle
Linda LeGarde Grover
Ikwe Ishpiming
To the Woman Who Just Bought a Set of Native American Spirituality Dream Interpretation Cards
Teresa Iyall-Santos
Grandmother, Salish Mathematician
Sara Littlecrow-Russell
Escape from the Rez on a Saturday Night
Marcie Rendon
whats an indian woman to do?
Annie Cecilia Smith
The Frybread Queen
Love is Blind
Not Indian Enough
Kimberly Wensaut
Alina in Kansas
Venaya Yazzie
after powwow
kateri akiwenzie-damm
the one who got away
Esther Belin
Emergence
Vee F. Browne
Smile
Diane Glancy
The Great Spirits Wife
The Abandoned Wife Gives Herself to the Lord
Joy Harjo
How to Get to the Planet Venus
Heather Harris
Coyote Meets His Match
Husbands
Roberta Hill
Elegy for Bobby
The Power of Crushed Leaves
Sara Littlecrow-Russell
My Books & Your White Women
Is It Too Much to Ask?
Laura Tohe
The Big Rectangle
Tsoodzi, Mountain to the South
Eulynda Toledo-Benalli
Ashkii Nizhn
Kimberly Wensaut
the way around losing you
Foreword
Foreword
Ikwewag diibaajimowag. Ikwewag nagamowag. Bizindan, Bizindan. Agindaasonnan, agindaasonnan.
The women are telling stories, the women are singing, listen, listen. Read, read.
Remarkable memories spill forth through pens held in the hands of dishwashers, hands of baby carriers, hands of loved ones and lovers, and the hands of those who hold the almighty bingo dauber.
In this book, you will find cherished memories and intimate stories revealed as the treasures they are. Some with the simplicity and matter-of-factness of a conversation or a tied quilt. Others with the intricacy and detail of the quill work on a hide using the smallest of quills from the porcupines side.
Storytelling is an artform, and the span of stories shared here is a mosaic. They are breathtaking, from the cherished oral histories of Changing Woman, recording the path, the miikinaa, the Creator has offered to women, to the honest memories of grandmas and quilts.